Joy to the World

December 25^th – MERRY CHRISTMAS!  I hope your day was full of joy and time with your family, either your relatives or your adopted family.  My day was full of both … and my family here is full of love and warmth, joking and laughing … just like my family back home.

One of my little friends told me today that her sister had a baby.  She is one of my friends in most need of love and affection, the same little friend who fell asleep in my arms during Las Posadas.  I thought it was so appropriate that she receive this little gift on Christmas day, a new bundle of joy.

Today was full of cooking!  After going to church this morning, we had a simple Christmas brunch.  I spent the day cooking.   Three little helpers stopped by to wish us Merry Christmas while the others were resting.  I invited them up.  We had cookies and coke to celebrated Jesus´ birthday together and then helped me prepare the green bean casserole.  After that, they colored pictures to take home to their infirm grandmother as a gift.

Joy and St. Nick went to deliver donation bags to the family who is the most in need in our acquaintance.  They spent the afternoon with them playing games with the kids and talking with the adults.  Padrito had masses to celebrate and Grace prepared the house for the evening.  At 3 pm Grace and two of our teens came to help me.  And at 6 pm our twenty-two teens began arriving for our Christmas dinner of chicken, rice and green bean casserole.  Before dinner we sang carols and after dinner we had a secret Santa gift exchange.  The day was completed by talking with my family.  Today, though far from home, I felt at home, because we celebrated the day with love and with dear friends.

Silent Night (Or Night not so Silent)

Saturday, December 24^th we invited a family to join to us for lunch, and we ate out Christmas Turkey.  I got to cook the meal, which I loved.  We have an aperitif, a gift from a friend, and ended with a traditional Honduran dessert, Rosquillas de Miel.  Then we went out to deliver gift bags to six of the poorest families in our neighborhood.  We received donations from three different groups and were able to make generous gift bags of food and cleaning products to give to each.  It was wonderful to be able to do something special for these friends. 

After Midnight Mass, we went out visiting.  Here everyone is outside in the streets the night of Christmas Eve.  Everyone has something new to wear and everyone if celebrating.  The kids buy bags of fire crackers, which they play with.  We went to the home of a friend for the Midnight festivities.  At midnight the family gathered around the Cresh while one little one put Jesus in with help and others sang.  Then we had a Christmas Toast with sparkling grape juice and everyone hugged and kissed each other on the cheek to wish each other a Merry Christmas.  Finally, the kids were dismissed to run to the back of the house where Santa had passed leaving a gift for each child.

Two minutes before midnight our neighborhood erupted! It sounded like every child in the neighborhood ignited a fire cracker at exactly the same time, many small ones, some normal ones and some so large they sounded like bombs.  The neighborhood poured into the streets with sparklers and handheld fireworks.  The celebration lasted for at least 20 minutes, after which my ears were ringing.  Again we went out to visit our friends in the streets … hugging and kissing the cheek of each person we met. 

The night ended in the house of a family we are very close to which has three teenage daughters and a teenage son.  They were just finishing their Christmas dinner and shared it with us.  After catching up with them, it had only been a few hours since we last saw them; we played Jenga until after 2 am.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Thursday, December 22^nd before Christmas we went to the women´s prison where our teens presented the Christmas Story acting it out in dialogue and song.   This was a huge success!  Another church was there with donations of clothing (the residents wear normal clothes) and food, so almost the entire prison was present.  They sang along to traditional Honduran Christmas carols and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the presentation.  One of the babies (women with children under the age of two are allowed to have their babies so that they can nurse and care for them) was Jesus.  He was perfect.  After being passed from one teen to another while we got ready (we were 20 in total), he slept soundly in my arms for the entire presentation until his grand moment when the angle placed him in the cresh.  At the finale he woke up to raise his little hands in the air and then fall asleep again.  After the show, he returned to his mother who was beeming with pride.  The afternoon ended with an impromptu game of soccer with our teens and many of the women.

Bus to the Women´s Prison

Stage in the openair pavillion at the prison

Little Baby Jesus Sleeping

Friday, December 23^rd we presented the show in out patio.  We invited everyone we talked to in the days leading up to the show and at my last count, 117 people came, with more arriving during the show.  The teens loved it and performed even better in our house than in the prison.  And the crowd enjoyed it also.  Everyone sang along to the carols which served as an interlude between each scene.  At the end, we all ate the Honduran version of our tamales, Nacatamales, and drank coke and mingled.  It seems like to whole neighborhood pitched in to the dinner. Some donated a chicken, others a bottle of soda or a bag or rice.  Others gave money to cover the cost and others worked for two days making the food.  In my eyes, it was a huge success.

Our cresh with banana palms

Finale!

It’s Christmas Time in the City

Christmas Season in Honduras is full of song, food, visits and joy!  I love it! 

A cool front arrived just in time Christmas Eve, that night.  So I wore a sweater to Midnight Mass and today there is just a bit of cool in the breeze … it is really nice!  We started celebrating 9 days before Christmas with Las Posadas. One friend and local benefactor invited us for a Christmas luncheon in her house with her mother the week before Christmas and gave us a Turkey to use for Christmas Eve dinner.  Another dear friend and benefactor invited us and eight of our teens to a Christmas Dinner (otherwise known as a feast) in her house the Sunday before Christmas.  Her whole family was there and we spent the night singing, dancing, praying, eating, laughing and celebrating.  

Another friend invited us to Christmas Dinner in her house with her three children.  The night ended in singing Christmas carols in four different language with Padrito and St. Nick playing the guitar.  It was such a lovely celebration and really felt like a Christmas at home, only with my new family.

Here are some pictures from our the dinner at our friend´s house with the teen -

Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly

I saw my first Christmas tree shortly after I arrived in October, but decorations were not in full swing until the end of November.  Like the US, here Christmas Trees, Nativity Scenes and Christmas lights adorn houses rich and poor, but the style is different.  Great attention is paid to the nativity scenes.  They are not just a cresh, but often an entire village of figurines, complete with colored sand and wood shavings.  This is one of my favorites.

But sometimes they are very simple too!  In the house of one of our friends we encountered another one of my favorites.  It was two statues, one of Mary and one of Joseph on a table covered with a white sheet.  In between them was a single white candle glowing brightly.  Here you do not put baby Jesus into his cresh until he arrives at Midnight on Christmas Eve. 

All the Christmas Trees, all stored carefully at the end of the Season to be used the following year, have ribbon wrapping them.  Some also have balls, others poinsettia flowers or butterflies.  Bows of sorts decorate the tip top instead of angles and stars.  And usually the tree is one or two colors – red and gold being the most prevalent.  Tensile and apples are also popular decorations.  Many are very beautiful and look like they belong in a catalog.

My neighbors love blinking lights.  They blink on the trees and they blink outside of the houses.  Most homes only have them inside, but one in ten has a few strands outside too.  It is nice to see our neighborhood so festively decorated!

We decorated our house too!  We have a little Christmas tree, a gift from years ago, complete with its blinking lights.  And we have a nativity scene which we made in the local style.

I made an advent calendar for us to use … but didn´t complete it until the second week of December … so I supposed it will get more use next year.  And we all worked on our handmade advent wreath.  I think it turned out quite well!  When we were working on it, my housemates laughed about how I would make a good preschool teacher, creating something out of poster board, crayons and some wire!

My First Friend

I am little by little learning why I am here and what it means to our community.  My first friend here, Eva, is a 16 year old, beautiful young lady who came to greet  me at the bus station when I arrived from El Salvador.  Like some many of our friends, her life has had more than its fair share of heart ache, yet she is constantly laughing and joking with us.  She is possibly the most frequent visitor to our house and love to help.  She like to accompany us when we go to the market and washes dishes that are not hers as if it were something she enjoyed (without being asked). 

She craves friendship and love.  She needs affirmation.  She is often very easy to love and very helpful.  But as a teenager, she has a rebellious streak as well. 

When I think about what we “do”, she comes to mind.  For our neighbors, we are their support system, we are their first recourse in times of trouble.  We clean wounds and we give food.  We receive donations only to give them to someone who needs them more.  We are companions for the family Christmas dinner, to the wedding of a child, for the death of a child and for a trip to the doctor.  When a baby is sick, we receive a knock on our door (or a jingle of the lock).  When a grandchild leaves to work in Spain, we are a shoulder to cry on.  And when a story needs to be told, we listen. 

When Eva had a dance recital and received a set number of tickets, she wanted us to be there.  And we were.  Eva dances in a high school troupe which performs traditional Honduran dances.  She dances well and loves it.  The day after the recital, she called us early in the morning.  That day we accompanied her to the doctor where she received three stitches.  For the next week, each day we applied her ointment. 

What do I do?  That depends, on the day, the moment, on the friend who appears on my doorstep.   

An Expat Thanksgiving

Yes, I celebrated Thanksgiving this year!  As a new friend, Fr. John, from Boston said, ¨this holiday is sufficiently important as a reminder to us Americans, that we must celebrate it wherever we are¨.

My dear friend, Nancy, drove me to an import supermarket to buy turkey, yams, cranberry jelly and pumpkin.  For three days I felt like a six year old waiting to Christmas.  I made decorations with cardboard and crayons, made place cards listing on the back the little gifts my housemates give for which I am thankful, then i cooked, and cooked, and cooked.  And I prepared Thanksgiving Day prayers to pray before we ate, with Joy´s help to rewrite my terrible Spanish grammar.  We had a real southern Thanksgiving dinner complete with stuffing a pumpkin pie and a guest.  It was so much fun! 

All week I though about the things for which I am thankful!  I am thankful for my family full of love and support for me and for the love I have for each of them.  I am thankful for my 20+ years full of life, excitement, joy and struggle which brought me here.  I am thankful for my friends who continue to love me, teach me, and encourage me.  I am thankful to be here with such precious companions who show me kindness and patience everyday.  I am thankful for my new friends who loved me before they had time to get to know me and who are showing me a new side of the beauty of life.  And I am thankful to have the opportunity to write this today, to be able to write it and to be able to post it.   My heart is full of gratitude!

The Widow´s Limpera

Last sunday we planned to have a fundraiser at our local church.  Joy called many of our friends and benefactors here in Honduras who come from middle and upper class families to ask them if they had clothes or other items they would like to donate.  We were then going to sort them and have a garage sale to raise funds for a feild trip with some of the teens from our weekly soccer game.  We received two donations.  The others either forgot or were to busy.  One friend very genrously donated household goods which we sold with some success.  I am hoping it is enough for a picnic in the city park or a trip to the museum in the center.  My joy from the other donation far surpassed any sadness I might have had at our request being forgotten by our other friends. 

Darling is the mother of two precious children who come to our house to play, to pray and for catecism classes.  They frequently join us when we have mass in our house on Wednesday nights.  Darling works cleaning houses, but is going to school to have a better job.  Her husband left her for prison and another family, but they are better off without him, because he would take her hard earned money and give it to his other family. 

Last month we invited them to lunch to celebrate her son´s birthday.  It was a joyful occasion full of laughter, signing along to Padrito playing the guitar and complete with a birthday cake with one candle on which Little John could make a wish for his 8th birhtday.  I think our gift of a box of crayons was his only birthday gift this year.  He loved his little party as much as we loved celebrating with him.  Darling´s youngest daughter is named after here and truely is a darling with a simple but deep faith, a quite spirit and a constant smile. She is six.

Two weeks ago we invited the family to dinner.  Darling overheard that we were going to try to raise funds for the teens.  The following Monday, we had nine bags full of clothes and shoes which she wanted to donate.  I can´t tell you how humbled I was and am by this gift from our friend who has so little and lives day to day. 

And in case you were wonderful, the Limperia is the currency in Honduras.